laptop doesn't like starry night and 350d at same time?

[danielsun]

This may be a dumb question. I'm not very computer smart but somehow managed to successfully set up Starrynight pro plus on the laptop and have got it driving the mount and works o.k, UNTIL I connect the 350D for remote shooting and take a shot after a minute or so starrynight says it has timed out and shuts down. It's like it doesn't like the two open at the same time.
In general it won't let me even open two Internet windows at the same time.
Does this have anything to do with it or is there a setting of some sort that I must change?
What am I doing wrong or is there a particular way to run the two programs together?
Any help would be much appreciated.

Cheers Daniel.

[astroturf (Bryan)]

Hello
I have Starry nite 6 pro, It worked fine until I downloaded software called nebulosity to use with DSI
SNP 6 locked up completely when both were used & from then on would not start up,instead coming up with error message, It could not be removed by the add/remove program or any other means
After trying everything the laptop ended up in the shop,whereupon everything had to be backed up & removed off the HD & then reinstalled
I personally think SNP 6 is more trouble than it's worth ( I'm definately not going to try it in conjuction with the 40D software after hearing of your plight!)
I find Stellarium easier to use, especially in directing My LX90 to objects via laptop
Goodluck
Bryan

[danielsun]

Gee Bryan, what a bugger!!
Mine doesn't sound as bad as yours, it actually says Starrynight has timed out and will shut down. Then I have to restart it and it's o.k again only until I take another shot.

Cheers Daniel.

[iceman (Mike)]

hmm that's a pain, Daniel. I use my SNP 5 with ImagesPlus, PHD, ICCapture and any other camera-related software just fine.

BUT i'm not controlling my telescope through it.

There must be some sort of conflict in the drivers or the ports?

[Dennis]

Is there a setting in SNP where you can change the frequency of updates to the ‘scope position? If so, maybe set it to refresh or update say, every 5 minutes and see if that works. Doing all the ‘scope tracking calculations and re-painting the screen every 5 mins will use fewer resources?

Cheers

Dennis

[asterisk (Geoff)]

We have 4 laptops and 1 desktop in our house - 2 of the laptops are XP and the other 3 computers are Vista. Starry Night will not run on any of the Vista machines. I updated to the current version hoping this would resolve the issue - nope!

I contacted Imaginova and their reply briefly was it was not their problem -Windows had to get their act together - try installing on a USBS Stick or HDD with FAT32 and not NTFS - this did work for one computer but not the others.

I think Starry Night has some issues of its own which need addressing.

I use SkyTools to point my mount and generate observing lists, PHD for guiding and ImagesPlus for camera control on the one laptop and have no problems - nothing closes or spits the dummy (except me when I have pack all those cables up at the end of the night).

[danielsun]

Originally Posted by Dennis

Is there a setting in SNP where you can change the frequency of updates to the ‘scope position? If so, maybe set it to refresh or update say, every 5 minutes and see if that works. Doing all the ‘scope tracking calculations and re-painting the screen every 5 mins will use fewer resources?

Cheers

Dennis

Thanks Dennis I'll look into that.

Originally Posted by asterisk

We have 4 laptops and 1 desktop in our house - 2 of the laptops are XP and the other 3 computers are Vista. Starry Night will not run on any of the Vista machines. I updated to the current version hoping this would resolve the issue - nope!

I contacted Imaginova and their reply briefly was it was not their problem -Windows had to get their act together - try installing on a USBS Stick or HDD with FAT32 and not NTFS - this did work for one computer but not the others.

I think Starry Night has some issues of its own which need addressing.

I use SkyTools to point my mount and generate observing lists, PHD for guiding and ImagesPlus for camera control on the one laptop and have no problems - nothing closes or spits the dummy (except me when I have pack all those cables up at the end of the night).

Thanks Geoff, I am planning on getting images plus soon so hope fully it may help though I do have star atlas pro to use if I must but it would be a shame..You pay some good bucks for a program that you can't fully use.

[danielsun]

Originally Posted by iceman

hmm that's a pain, Daniel. I use my SNP 5 with ImagesPlus, PHD, ICCapture and any other camera-related software just fine.

BUT i'm not controlling my telescope through it.

There must be some sort of conflict in the drivers or the ports?

Since the incident the 350d was giving me some trouble and would not shoot in manual mode so I downloaded all the new drivers and updates for vista still with no luck so I plugged it back into the old PC with XP and it worked then plugged it back into mine whilst on hold to canon technical support and you would'nt believe it, it began working again.

[skwinty (Steve)]

Hi Daniel
Have you updated the ASCOM drivers? There is a new update available and it may assist in rectifying your problem.
I also use SNP with an EQ6 with a Canon 40DH.
Also update SNP to 6.2.1 if you have not done so.
Regards
Steve

[asterisk (Geoff)]

Originally Posted by danielsun

Thanks Geoff, I am planning on getting images plus soon so hope fully it may help though I do have star atlas pro to use if I must but it would be a shame..You pay some good bucks for a program that you can't fully use.

I fully agree - SNP has caused me more problems than any other I use. Are you using SNP to locate objects, or to point your telescope as well. If the latter, Sky Tools will successfully find and point the telescope as well as SNP, plus you have the advantage of creating lists of objects (or borrowing already created lists).

If you decide to look at Sky Tools, there is a new version due soon.

Cheers

[astroturf (Bryan)]

Hello Again
I have tried a few other programs including CDC, Autostar,Stellarium & the dreaded SNP 6 to find objects & point the scope at them
IMHO, all accolades go to stellarium for simplicity & the fact it's free,it's nite vision mode is less offensive than the others, & it seems to take a lot less time to start the program,, I don't think a lot of people are aware it can be used for telescope control

Just my 2 cents...

Bryan

[danielsun]

Originally Posted by skwinty

Hi Daniel
Have you updated the ASCOM drivers? There is a new update available and it may assist in rectifying your problem.
I also use SNP with an EQ6 with a Canon 40DH.
Also update SNP to 6.2.1 if you have not done so.
Regards
Steve

Thanks Steve, I'm downloading the upgrade right now.

Originally Posted by asterisk

I fully agree - SNP has caused me more problems than any other I use. Are you using SNP to locate objects, or to point your telescope as well. If the latter, Sky Tools will successfully find and point the telescope as well as SNP, plus you have the advantage of creating lists of objects (or borrowing already created lists).

If you decide to look at Sky Tools, there is a new version due soon.

Cheers

Thanks Geoff, I might check it out.

Originally Posted by astroturf

Hello Again
I have tried a few other programs including CDC, Autostar,Stellarium & the dreaded SNP 6 to find objects & point the scope at them
IMHO, all accolades go to stellarium for simplicity & the fact it's free,it's nite vision mode is less offensive than the others, & it seems to take a lot less time to start the program,, I don't think a lot of people are aware it can be used for telescope control

Just my 2 cents...

Bryan

Wow, I've got stellarium and I wasn't aware that it had the telescope drive function.

cheers Daniel.

[Barrykgerdes]

Hi Daniel

Stellarium has limited telescope drive capability. It needs a driver program run first. At the moment there is a driver for Meade telescopes and some Celestron's or any telescope mount that use these protocols. If you have something different you will need the computer commands to read the telescope position and the commands to move the telescope.

Read the Wiki on telescope control at www.stellarium.org . If one of the programs does work add it to the list. If not one of the developers may be able to write the necessary code and we can add it to the program.

At the moment the program source code is in c++. But it may be written in any language and compiled. The program needs to be able to output sequential data to a computer port and read similar data from the same port.

In any case let us know your results

Barry

[Omaroo (Chris Malikoff)]

Originally Posted by asterisk

I contacted Imaginova and their reply briefly was it was not their problem -Windows had to get their act together - try installing on a USBS Stick or HDD with FAT32 and not NTFS - this did work for one computer but not the others.

Hmm.. it is not MS's fault for developing new operating systems - we all want those and everyone has to move withthe times. It IS Imaginova's fault for not following along - whatever they've said. They've been privvy to Vista alpha and beta releases for years now. There's no excuse. If they think that MS is going to alter their OS to suit Starry Night they're dreaming - they knew what system architecture was coming and they didn't manoeuvre their development efforts to suit. They lost by choosing OpenGL in my opinion. As a graphic API it is pretty-much dead - as compared to DirectX. All you hear on the net are stories about programmers moving to DirectX in droves. Card manufacturers need a kick in the butt too.

Although I much prefer my favourite - Voyager - I run Starry Night 6.2.1 successfully on my Vista desktop machine Geoff. It took downloading the right OpenGL drivers from the video card manufacturer - in my case I loaded the ATI Radeon "Catalyst" application which includes OpenGL which works on Vista. As long as OpenGL runs successfully on your box, so will SN. Also try turning Aero off.

Make sure tat you're running the latest version of SN too - 6.2.1. Here is a list of release notes fromm 6.0.4 to current - 6.2.1:

6.2.1 Release Notes
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Bug Fixes:
[] Compatibility issues with some Radeon Mobility video cards have been resolved
[] Object outlines, FOV indicators, and object labels now print better in black and white


6.2.0 Release Notes
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Please note that some of the new features are available only for installations of Digital Download with appropriate modules installed.

New Features:
[] DAWN space mission (trajectory and 3D model).
[] 65 new 3D asteroid models.
[] Appulse event searching.
[] 4 new Earth horizon panoramas.
[] Smooth window fading (Windows XP and Vista).
[] Transparent floating windows (Windows Vista).

Bug Fixes:
[] Horizontal lines on graph no longer creep at low scale.
[] Graphing satellites now shows accurate altitude maxima and minima at mid-low scales.
[] 3DS models now rotate correctly (correct attitude).
[] 3DS Models now scaling properly.
[] Observing List (planner) filters now working properly for 'above horizon' times.
[] Observing List (planner) date no longer incorrectly sets to 1/1/4713 BC when "On specific date" is selected.
[] Observing List (planner) now correctly filtering for double/multiple/variable stars.
[] Event finder moon phases visibility filtering now fixed.
[] Meteor Shower events now properly being found for all dates.
[] Meteor shower event dates now included for years other than 2006.
[] Ephemeris Generator end date no longer jumps to 99999 after changing start date.
[] Smoothed out "Go There" animation.
[] Large black distortion around sun halo on some video cards no longer occurs.
[] Horizon drawing now taking into account daylight fade level on liftoff.
[] Saturn rings now show when printing.
[] Milky Way panorama no longer has artifacts after printing.
[] Removed extreme jitter of planets when location scrolling around.
[] View from centre of planet now correctly reports planet name.
[] Changing a location preserves a centre-on object or location in the sky.
[] Magnify function now correctly works on stars.
[] Altitude column widened and resizable.
[] Orbits and paths line thickness now adjustable.
[] Coordinate grid labels text now has configurable font/colour.
[] Saving or loading an SNF file with XYZ orbit lines enabled no longer causes displayed lines to disappear.
[] Saving Planet image options now possible through right-click on any planet. Save as default saves this selection.
[] Can now save a planet/moon Surface Image/Model setting as default. (Also added right-click to select.)
[] Eyepiece barrel size in equipment list no longer reports with strange characters instead of inches symbol.
[] About Dialog now correctly listed in the Help menu (Windows)
[] No longer crashes when attempting to magnify an object below horizon using right-click.
[] Files double-clicked on windows now open correctly again.
[] OpenGLInit.log now in application directory instead of root.
[] Registration windows misspellings fixed.
[] Space mission (XYZ) orbits draw 2x faster.
[] XYZ planets support multiple 3DS model overrides for defined time intervals.
[] XYZ planets can be oriented in direction of travel or aligned to specified planet direction.
[] Space mission sorting in DataBrowser improved.
[] XYZ orbit color overrides.
[] XYZ orbits can be drawn Earth-centrically.
[] XYZ Earth-centric orbits correctly obscured by Earth and Moon.
[] New planet option to show/hide atmosphere edge.


6.0.6 Release Notes
-------------------------------------------------------------------

This update to Starry Night focuses on general performance and stability, especially concerning Microsoft Windows Vista.

Please ensure your video card drivers are up to date.

While we've done our best to ensure that Starry Night will run smoothly on Vista, it is highly dependent on the compatibility of your video card and video card drivers with this new operating system.

In addition, the following changes and improvements have been made:
[] Loading time for 3D Models has been reduced


6.0.4 Release Notes
-------------------------------------------------------------------

[] Fixed change to Animated Horizon allowing to to again work on most systems.
[] Fixed bug where horizon would switch back to animated if changed to flat or custom before photorealistic.
[] Additional fix for unnecessary visual updates to calendar panel.

[asterisk (Geoff)]

Chris - thankyou for the effort, but SN is becoming more and more of a waste of time.
I followed your advice - Catalyst, attempted to install from the DVD - immediate request for disk 2 and finished in less than a minute. Obviously something wrong!
I then attempted to install the 6.2 update - no original file locations because 6.0 did not install.
I have also been using Voyager - no hassles with Vista.